On Pattern Recognition

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to help tackle some of the world’s most challenging social problems.… We identified 18 AI capabilities that could be used to benefit society. Fourteen of them fall into three major categories: computer vision, natural-language processing, and speech and audio processing.

The remaining four, which we treated as stand-alone capabilities, include three AI capabilities: reinforcement learning, content generation, and structured deep learning. Computer vision, the specific capabilities of image classification and object detection, stand out for their potential applications for social good.

The capabilities are often used together — for example, when drones need computer vision to navigate a complex forest environment for search-and-rescue purposes. In this case, image classification may be used to distinguish normal ground cover from footpaths, thereby guiding the drone’s directional navigation, while object detection helps circumvent obstacles like trees.

Some of the use cases consist of tasks a human being could potentially accomplish on an individual level, but the required number of instances is so large that it exceeds human capacity (e.g., finding flooded or unusable roads after a hurricane).

Also, an AI system can be more accurate, often by processing more information (e.g., the early identification of plant diseases).